Herein I declare that Agent Phil Coulson is the Lord and Clark Gregg to be His holy vessel and Whedon the holy prophet of this new age. I will also go on record stating that without either Clark Gregg or Agent Coulson, everything that Marvel Studios has worked for would not be nearly as successful.

Today, Tuesday September the 24th in the year of our Coul, to be one of the holy days. For it is today that Marvel's Agents of SHIELD was first broadcast.

I'm not going to talk about the first episode in this here post out of respect for our brothers and sisters who live to the east, beyond the small ocean. If one must speak words of praise (or heaven forbid, words of rage) then I beseech you to be mindful of who may have seen and who may have not beheld and when such things have happened.

The setting and plot is thus: This is a post Chitauri world. What happened in New York during the Avengers has changed a lot of things. It is also a very Marvel universe. People are super talented and singularly motivated. I speak specifically of the very pretty people who are amazingly good at what they do. There is powerful magic, terrible technology and diabolical people willing to employ one or all of it to their nefarious ends.

The main players:

Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson (pbuh)

Ming Na Wen as Melinda May - a multi-talented agent trying to distance herself from some event in her past.

Brett Dalton as Grant Ward - an agent who scored almost as well as Black Widow in some field and psych tests.

Chloe Bennet as Skye - overly capable computer hacker as keen on discovering other people's secrets as she is trying to keep her own.

Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz - Britlander tech geek.

Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons - Britlander biology geek.

Lola - Agent Coulson's (pbuh) fancy "new and improved" 1962 Corvette.

There are a few loverly uncredited (according to IMDB as yet) surprises that I simply will not give away no matter how much you beg me.

Before I talk about the Pilot episode I will likely watch it at least one more time but feel free to geek up this thrad with either Marvel's Agents of SHIELD talk, praise for Agent Coulson (pbuh) or, to be inclusive to the Marvelverse, anything relating to Marvel's Agents of SHIELD or the greater cinematic Marvel Universe. The Marvel Cinematic Universe includes any Marvel Studios movie or now television show. Marvel based properties handled by other studios (boo, hiss -ed) can be decided on a case-by-case basis.

I hereby declare that I liked the first episode of SHIELD. I was highly dubious of Ming Na Wen but thankfully they've given her the flinty wounded warrior gig which leads to clenched stoicism and crisp violence rather than cheesy emoting.

The greater nerdverse has been talking about what happened that took Coulson (pbuh) from dead back to alive. It's already been hinted at in the very first episode. But you know this is the child of Whedon. And as we all know you just can't go around expecting the expected from Whedon. I know what you're wanting but I can't help but want Whedon to bite his thumb at the greater nerdverse, at least on this. I won't be hurt or offended if it doesn't happen my way, but maybe just a little sad. That same little sadness where I keep all the things I loved that Joss has already killed in some way or another.

One of the things that occurred to me which led me to declaring the importance of Gregg and Coulson to the MCU is that even from the very beginning he seemed like a character that Whedon would have created on his own. Think on that. From the inception of the MCU with Iron Man there he was. I don't know when Whedon was brought in to work on the Avengers but I'm p sure it wasn't from the beginning.

I know I said I'd watch the show at least one more time before really talking about it, but I have to mention a moment I loved. In that pivotal scene at the end of the scene at the train station Agent Coulson (pbuh) walks in and I see he's carrying his gun. I said to myself, but probably out loud, He wouldn't/shouldn't be carrying his gun like that! and then he goes and sets it down on the ground. I got all and That's my Phil!

I think that was one of the best pilot episodes I have ever seen for an action series.

The first scene literally made me jump in my seat. That big boom was very well timed and I am not used to that level of action on the small screen. That goes for all the FX really and the set pieces/locations were really well done, cinematic even.

The cast has a lot of potential. I loved seeing Ron Glass in the headquarters and I hope he gets some screen time. Ditto Cobie Smulders because I love her. I am also in love with Fitzsimmons. I think those two have great chemistry. I am not sure if I like Ward yet, but there is plenty of time to find out. Heh, introducing your lead man as poop with knives sticking out was unusual to say the least.

The message the writers slipped in to the final speech was awesome and had me cheering. I had wondered about what kind of tone they would be able to find, what with the NSA Prism scandal and what not. A super secret, classify all the danger the public is in, heavily funded, autonomous from the democratic process, government department is a really, really hard thing to write right now as the "good guys." The Rising Tide/Anonymous elements were well done too and I am curious how they are going to pull that into the story as the season develops. Good sci fi must take into account what is going on in the culture and they more than exceeded my expectations on that front. Which was 99% Coulson pbuh.

It is on my DVR, but I have not watched it yet. We have determined that this will be one of "our" shows, but we weren't both un-busy at the same time long enough to watch last night. So, I cannot read this thrad, and it is TORTURE.

I missed the first twenty minutes because I work until 8:00. I will catch up with it at some point soon.

One bit of trivia I do want to share. Iain De Caestecker, Britlander tech geek, played Ken Barlow's grand-child Adam briefly on Coronation Street, back when he was a child actor. Linus Roache at one point played Ken Barlow's son, well, twice really with different sons. It's complicated.* Anyway, Linus Roache played Thomas Wayne in Batman Begins so that means that Marvel's Britlander tech geek is Batman's cousins, according to my personal rules.

*If you care about the details:

Linus Roache is the son of the actor who plays Ken Barlow, William Roache. When he was starting out he played Ken's son Peter for a short time. Then he became a bigger star than his dad outside of Britain. So after his stint on Law and Order he came back to do a cameo role as Ken's bastard son that he had no idea existed. He was in one episode mainly to set things up for Ken's grandchild to join the show. That grandchild was played by his half-brother, William Roache's son from a different marriage. Phew, I said it was complicated.

__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette

Scattered thoughts and musings, spoilered not necessarily for content but just to be safe so as not to offend Adem's sensibilities or anger the weekend admin.

The I'm not ready to unspoiler gist: I enjoyed it, but remember I am one of the great unwashed Whedon fanborts. Agent Coulson's Marvel's Agents of Agent Coulson's SHIELD was a solid start. Some good moments, fun dialog, quirky characters and so many loads of potential I just can't stand it. You know, what we in the biz call typical Whedon.

I like that this first story was about a man. Just a man. Who got himself involved in something bigger than himself and far more dangerous than he may have agreed to if his life was still on track. How he tried to be better and do the right thing.

This is a great place to start. Small and personal. A story you can understand and empathize with. What if you were down and out and someone promised to give you your life back? A lot of people, and if I may say a lot of inner city people (you know "ethnics", like Mike Peterson. (I could probably say something about the white people swooping down from the privilege-plane to save him, but I won't.)

There are hints to a greater conspiracy going on so there seems to be a lot of room for growth. As a bonus, I think they've already hinted at some potential Civil War material. Civil War, for the non-marvelines here was a series where everyone in the US who was a mutant or had any kind of preternatural gift needed to register with the government. There was a big stinkin' divide in the hero community, some good guys opposed it, some bad guys reveled in it and it got p bad. I don't know that it's happening in the MCU, I'm conjecturing because Maria Hill noted that the Hooded Hero was an "unregistered gifted."

As the show proceeds it won't just be about the event of the week or the advancement of the plot. We've come to expect Whedon shows to be as much about the people as the journey they take. And right now everyone is about their secrets.

Alright, I guess not everyone. The techbros don't seem to have any secrets. They live their lives right there on their lab spaces, no real pretense. Right now I totes love them because they're like Binars - two independent people who somehow also share brain space.

Also it doesn't look like Agent Mr Ward isn't carrying around any secrets. Baggage, yes, but that's not a secret to Coulson (pbuh).

Coulson has a secret that he doesn't know about. Tahiti is a magical place. Is he real or is he Memorex? There's not necessarily such a thing as Occam's Razor when it comes to comics or television. In long format entertainment things can get messy and complicated. It's certainly possibly and also highly probably he's the LMD. I'm holding out hope that it's something else but regardless I'm praying that it's not something dumb.

Skye is running from a past and went to great lengths to cover things up. I mean, Coulson says it: We know nothing about her. We're SHIELD, do you have any idea how refreshing that is? I'm taking a leap and saying it outright: I think she was the sum total of the Rising Tide. I don't have anything to support it and there's circumstantial evidence against me saying it, but I'm saying it. That's just how good a cracker she is.

And Agent Mays, the Bus Driver. It might be easy to guess something happened in New York. But I dunno. I don't know how deep I want to look at her right now. I'm more than happy to have her drive the plane with a scowl and then look at crime scenes with a scowl and generally be a grumpy gus to Coulson's power of positivity.

And now for some unconnected joy thoughts as things happened:

J AUGUST RICHARDS. I had no idea, not that I was really trying to dig up the secrets of the production. I'm always happy to see Gunn get some work. Also, I could swear that Skye called him Gunn late in the episode.

RON LOVIN' GLASS. Oh man. It just slays me how Joss works to get alumnuses involved in other Whedon projects. My heart gets so happy.

"Never tell me there's no way!"
"Nobody is nobody, Ward."

Agent Coulson is like... Yoda and the Doctor.

“I don’t think Thor is technically a god.”
“Mm, you haven’t been near his arms.”

And to be a completists of sorts, TMS has a recap and some words plus talk about the pilot. The writer mentions things we've already mentioned here. Plus the comments are usually p good there if you're into that kind of thing.

Also, I'm just waiting for pictures of the porcupoop to make its way onto the web.

Just watched it for the second time with Contra. That's some good TV watching.

One thing jumped out at me on the second viewing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

Also it doesn't look like Agent Mr Ward isn't carrying around any secrets. Baggage, yes, but that's not a secret to Coulson (pbuh).

Well it is a secret to us and that is what matters. When talking about his performance scores in people skills Coulson mentioned his "family history." I cannot wait to find out who he is related too.

I am new to Marvel but there is scuttlebutt around the web that it might be

The Taskmaster

Which based on what I read about the character could be pretty cool.

The Doctor Who comparison I think is a great one Bort. The potential for bringing in old cannon stuff and mixing in new totally reminds me of what Davies did in relaunching that franchise. There is decades worth of material that they can play around with. Which should be fun for old and new fans alike.

Also for an American action show that has a humanist message. It is about damn time.

In Which Adem, the One True Heir of House Gorden, Goes Against the Grain and is All, Like, "Meh"

I went into this keeping my expectations deliberately low, and I definitely did not dislike it. But, I'm not hyped up about it, either. After discounting for this being the pilot, with all that entails, I am cautiously optimistic. The premise has strong potential, and there were lots of good ideas and interesting themes flying around, but the execution turned me off in two ways.

First, none of the characters except Coulson really clicked for me. The Science Twins are kind of cute (they need to slow down, though...accents plus Whedonesque patter pacing equal lots of hitting the back button to figure out what the hell they just said), but Ming Na has all the charisma of a two by four in this role, and What if Scarlett Johanson Was a Dude is just generic white male badass so far. I really want to like Skye, but then I also really want to hate just how badly the show wants me to like her. Her dialog is a textbook case of trying too hard to establish smarts and quirkyness, and does sodium pentothal really work better in the presense of cleavage?

Then, second, fucking Extremis. Extremis is dumb. Extremis thrown in a blender with gamma radiation, alien metal, (not unreplicable after all?) super-soldier serum, and probably a single hair plucked from the head of an Asgardian to top it off is ridiculous. Extremis was one of the worst things about Iron Man 3, and it didn't work any better here, IMO. Sure, you'll probably blow up, but think how strong you'll be in the mean time! Maybe if you just focus really hard on not blowing up, like a drunk college kid who thinks he can maintain? The parts of the resolution that weren't just Coulson being a badass negotiator were horrible as well. "We can't develop a cure for this thing we just found out existed in two hours!" "Nothing is impossible! It's going to be all your fault if that dude dies! Maybe use Chekov's Literal Gun that you were playing with earlier!" Frowny science face, frowny science face, frowny science face, DAY SAVED! Good shot, Y-Chro Scar Jo!

There was a lot that I liked, too, though. Lots of good one-liners, in particular the poop-upine was a nice laugh, and the bit about Thor got a smile. Coulson's trick with the truth serum was clever. I liked the foundation building for the series that went on. I dug that they at least tried to address the notion that a top-secret agency that hides the truth from the public based on its own estimation of the greater good isn't necessarily a great idea. I like it any time a show addresses the big lie that all you need to do is work hard and you'll get ahead in life. I like that they're in the Marevel Universe but not IN the Marvel Universe, all up their own asses with established continuity. I am intrigued by Tahiti, especially since Scar Bro has apparently also been there.

So, I guess overall, I thought it was just OK, but it appears to have laid the foundation for something better, and I'm interested to see where it goes.

Edit: I think my biggest fear for this show is that it's going to end up in my sour spot, where it's not good enough for me to nerd out about (like, say, Battlestar Galactica, or Heroes or Lost in their better seasons), but also not bad enough for me to enjoy snarking about (like, say, Smallville, or Heroes or Lost in their worst seasons). I'm afraid it's going to be like that last season of Heroes, where it wasn't actively horrible to the point where I had a good time ripping into it, but it also wasn't good enough to watch for non-snark-related reasons.

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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"

Last edited by Adam; 09-26-2013 at 05:54 PM.
Reason: spoilers b/c I forgot Ingerland hasn't gotten the show yet

It's okay, Adom. We don't shun disbelievers here. We just love and tolerate them until they are one of us.

eta:
I suppose I should be more than just glib. I don't disagree with anything you state as problems or hurdles or just annoying parts. I feel almost as positive about what I've seen as I did with Firefly all those years ago. It has its flaws but I see more potential than problems with the cast and the writing and where I think the show wants to go.

I feel almost as positive about what I've seen as I did with Firefly all those years ago. It has its flaws but I see more potential than problems with the cast and the writing and where I think the show wants to go.

I think I'm at a disadvantage, because I cannot actually remember how I first received Firefly. I seem to remember finding the characters more fully fleshed out right from the start, BUT, I came way late to that party, and watched the whole thing on DVD over the course of a weekend, so it's possible, if not probable, that I'm misremembering how I felt about them after three or four episodes as being the way I felt about them after just the pilot. AND ALSO, DVD's meant I watched Firefly in the order nature and Whedon intended, not the order mandated by network television, and therefore saw the real pilot first.

The first episode of Firefly was the Train Job. It starts with bar fight over something I knew not what at the time. The next thing I know they're stealing stuff off a train - a train that floats over rails - from a space ship. I felt pretty good about being hooked right then but the episode only got better from there. The series proper was the reason the phrase "like catching lightning in a bottle" was coined.

Agent Coulson's Marvel's Agents of Agent Coulson's SHIELD wasn't quite that euphoric for me, but I will admit to some level of exultation. But that's likely due to some combination of Whedon back on TV, Avengers contact high and comic books on television.

I am going to stick with the show, of course, though I share liv's fear of "Heroes". For me, the big draw here is Coulson (obviously) and catching Marvel Universe Easter Eggs (of which, they should plant a whole lot more)

I thought the pretty boy was weak, myself. I wasn't that thrilled with the pilot, but I'm going to give it a chance to impress me. I watch and enjoy a lot of Whedon's work, but I wouldn't call myself a fangirl. I usually enter into it with a grain of salt, and I do tire of the kickass small woman trope.

__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette

Coulson knows. They think they got him penned in by being a level whatever he is, but he's Agent Phil Coulson (pbuh) - even if he isn't, you know, the Agent Phil Coulson.

He knows.

They'll have some big drama about keeping it from him and then somebody will have The Talk with him (prolly Hill) and he'll be all "Okay, I know," and then go save the world by being nice to it and the world will be all "Gosh, I never thought about it like that. You're right." And there will be tears. And there will be laughter. But always through it all there will be Agent Phil Coulson (pbuh) just knowing.

He's a bad leader. (And by extension, Nick Furious' SHIELD is a shit organization) He seems to have all the answers but he doesn't help his team understand what his plans are - either for the team in general or for the immediate objective. This makes for fantastic soundbites and hilarious yodaisms. It's great to look back and realize that he had everything under control, sort of, but it would reduce a lot of bullshit and stress if they could do more of their own job without worrying about just how close to death, dismemberment and-or injury while cosmic level energies are being pointed at you.

On a real team like this there would be lots of briefings and memos aplenty, Like, for every hour on the ground they'd probably spend 9 hours reading and talking about their duties in and out of objectivating missions. They would spend so many hours learning about the expectations of the other members of the team they would just be tired of talking about it all. With all of the money spent on the highly trained brains and bodies, representing likely tens of millions of dollars of investment nevermind the hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment at risk, you're damn right they'd do every thing they could think of (and even things they couldn't think of) to minimize the risk and loss.

It's alright for a rag-tag group of space cowboy pirates to fly by the seat of their pants but a pan-global and sometimes pan-dimension and on rare occasions pan-galactic organization ain't into playing those kinds of games. Nick Furious should have his boot even further up Coulson's shiny metal ass for accidentally falling bass ackwards into surviving the missions he's living through.

Coulson (pbuh) deserves the flack he's getting from the soldiers he has recuited. They're being told to do the incredible and only being given half a deck of cards to do it with, and not even knowing what the cards in that half a deck are.

Now then, with that out of the way. What happened this week?

Turns out, ladies and gentles, your favorite friendly neighborhood Bort was wrong. I thought for sure, or at least with a high degree of certainty, that Skye was the whole and total of the Rising Tide. Turns out I was wrong. I'm sorry for my wrongness. And in reflecting on that wrongness I wonder what other prognostications I am already likely wrong about also.

So, Skye is working for an unaligned third party. Neither do we know what her true motivation is. An obvious path is that she was recruited and is being forced to do what she's doing. Also likely is that now that she's making friends - seeing the face of the "beast" so to speak - she's going to question her role as an inside agent. I was hoping that she would simply be the liberal Occupy foil to the rigid traditional hierarchy of SHIELD.

No one else's arc moved very much. May is still the stoic and wounded warrior not happy to still be in the business of hitting people and breaking things. Ward is still the White Guy in the middle. Fitz and Simmons are still the sciencey guys.

So, yah, this second episode definitely fell into that sour spot I was talking about. It wasn't bad, exactly, but it wasn't all that good either. If it didn't have the Marvel Filmverse brand attached, I wouldn't be watching it, and that makes Agent Coulson sad.

Case of the week isn't a horrible format, but the cases have to actually be interesting. Why do I care about some vaguely described Hydra weapon or whatever?

And also, Bort is totally right about Coulson being a horrible team leader. It bugged me last week when he was all "It's your fault if you can't do this impossible thing!" and it's not getting any better. Share. Information. Dude.

I did like the...

...double agent twist, even if I'm pretty sure I won't like where it ends up. I hated the easy way that the NSA stand-in co-opted the Anonymous stand-in last time, so it was nice to see that she's not just playing their game.

Some notes to try and look for the light at the other side of the tunnel: You should be used to Whedonish stuff by now, Adams. We have to endure some of the MacGuffin of the week episodes, holding on to whatever little arcing plots are scattered throughout. I'm hoping this is like the first season of Buffy - a few moments of potential mired in a lot of trying to find its footing, followed by a couple of seasons of excellence.

Though my faith in the prophet Whedon was tarnished a bit (okay, a lot) by Dollhouse, playing in the MCU is really something he can be great at. Nobody has said anything (in what little I actually read about the goings on off-screen) but I can't help but think despite his golden ticket performance of the Avengers, it's entirely possible the PTB of Disney/ABC are keeping him on a medium leash.

But then, I could just be looking to make excuses on why this thing that should be balls out awesome is only just okay. I wanted to believe that I didn't have much in the way of expectations here, but I may have distorted expectations because of how great I think the Marvel Studios have been converting comics to the big screen. Also, the big wanting of Whedon back on TV, hoping for the lightning of Buffy/Angel/Firefly to strike again.